HE’S a little young for the role at 74 but Welsh movie legend Sir Anthony Hopkins is to play Methusaleh.

Hopkins has signed on to play the long lived patriarch (he is said to have died aged 969) in Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky’s biblical epic Noah.

He will join a star studded cast including Russell Crowe as the ark builder, Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly as Noah’s wife Naameh, Emma Watson as Lla, a young woman who forms a bond with Noah’s son and Ray Winstone as the “nemesis” of Noah.

Aronofsky was clearly thrilled Port Talbot born Silence of the Lambs star Hopkins had agreed to join the cast, announcing the news on his Twitter page this week.

The highly rated director wrote: “I’m honoured to be working with the great Sir Anthony Hopkins.

“We just added him to the stellar cast of #Noah; #methuselahlives.” Methuselah, Noah’s grandfather, is described by Biblical scholars as the oldest-known individual in the history of the Hebrew Bible.

His passing at almost 1,000 years old occurs seven days before the beginning of Great Flood, and it was written that God delayed the flood by seven days to provide a fitting mourning period.

One of the Hebrew patriarchs, he is mentioned in Genesis 5.

The movie is already in production and will start filming in August.

The movie version of Noah which is to be filmed in Iceland and New York, is said to be a close “but darker” adaptation of the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark.

In a world ravaged by human sin, Noah is given a divine mission: to build an Ark to save creation from the coming flood.

The screenplay was written by Aronofsky and Ari Handel and revised by screenwriter John Logan.